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[The question of whether this is an impeachable offense is not even
interesting. Imagine what Madison - or even Hamilton or Jay - would
have said about it. See, e.g., <i>Federalist #51</i>, where
Madison argues that, because of the division of power, a "double
security arises to the rights of the people. The governments will
control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by
itself." Right. --CGE]<br>
<br>
Judge Dismisses Challenge to Targeted Killing<br>
By CHARLIE SAVAGE<br>
Published: December 7, 2010<br>
<br>
WASHINGTON — A federal judge threw out a lawsuit on Tuesday that
sought to block the American government from trying to kill Anwar
al-Awlaki, a United States citizen and Muslim cleric accused of
playing a significant role in Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.<br>
<br>
The ruling clears the way for the Obama administration to continue
to try to kill Mr. Awlaki and represents a victory in its efforts to
shield from judicial review one of its most striking
counter-terrorism policies.<br>
<br>
The court not only rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that Mr.
Awlaki’s father had no standing to file it on behalf of his son, but
held that decisions to mount targeted killings overseas are a
“political question” for executive officials to make — not judges.<br>
<br>
In an 83-page opinion, Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia
district court acknowledged that the case raised “stark, and
perplexing, questions” — including whether the president could
“order the assassination of a U.S. citizen without first affording
him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based the mere
assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist
organization.”<br>
<br>
But even though the “legal and policy questions posed by this case
are controversial and of great public interest,” he wrote, they
would have to be resolved on another day or outside of the courts,
since this case had to be dismissed at the onset.<br>
<br>
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the ruling. But
Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who
helped represent Mr. Awlaki’s father, Nasser al-Awlaki, in the
matter, called the decision “a profound mistake” that he said would
dangerously expand presidential powers.<br>
<br>
“If the court’s ruling is correct, the government has unreviewable
authority to carry out the targeted killing of any American,
anywhere, whom the president deems to be a threat to the nation,”
Mr. Jaffer said. “It would be difficult to conceive of a proposition
more inconsistent with the Constitution, or more dangerous to
American liberty.”<br>
<br>
Judge Bates rejected the notion that his ruling amounting to holding
that the executive possesses “unreviewable authority to order the
assassination of any American whom he labels an enemy of the state.”
His ruling emphasized that it was limited to the circumstances of
Mr. Awlaki, whom the intelligence community has said is engaged in
specific operational planning of attacks against the United States.<br>
<br>
“The court only concludes that it lacks capacity to determine
whether a specific individual in hiding overseas, whom the director
of national intelligence has stated is an ‘operational member’ ” of
Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, Judge Bates said, “presents such a threat
to national security that the United States may authorize the use of
lethal force against him.” Robert Chesney, a University of Texas law
professor who specializes in national security law, said the limits
of the theory articulated by Judge Bates would be a matter of hot
dispute.<br>
<br>
“The slippery slope is obviously the concern here,” Mr. Chesney
said. “Judge Bates is at pains not to decide this question for other
circumstances. But the question remains, what else besides this fact
pattern would enable the government to have the same result — no
judicial involvement in a targeted-killing decision?”<br>
<br>
The A.C.L.U., along with the Center for Constitutional Rights,
brought the lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Awlaki’s father last summer. It
first had to receive permission to represent Nasser al-Awlaki from
the Treasury Department, which has labeled Anwar al-Awlaki a
“specially designated global terrorist.”<br>
<br>
Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico in 1971, moved to Yemen in
2004. He has made many videos and published many writings on the
Internet calling for Muslims to attack the United States.<br>
<br>
Within the last year, government officials contend, he has evolved
from being a mere propagandist to playing an “operational role” in
specific attempted attacks. Among other things, he is accused of
directing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who attempted
to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08killing.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08killing.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema1</a><br>
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